Saudi Arabia is targeting oil pipeline capacity of 10 million bbl/d within three years, Egypt Oil & Gas reported, a plan that would expand the Kingdom's east-to-west crude trunk system as it works to move barrels around the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint.

The 10-million-bbl/d figure frames the Kingdom's infrastructure ambition in concrete terms: a three-year buildout window that would put the expanded capacity in service by roughly 2028. Egypt Oil & Gas carried the target without naming a specific Saudi agency or company official, and Riyadh has not yet published an accompanying capital cost estimate or a line-by-line scope of works.

Why does east-west pipeline capacity matter?

Saudi Arabia's East-West Crude Pipeline — the Petroline — currently runs from Abqaiq in the Eastern Province to Yanbu on the Red Sea, giving the Kingdom a bypass option for crude exports that would otherwise transit the Strait of Hormuz. Pipeline throughput capacity effectively caps how many barrels Riyadh can ship westward without loading at Gulf terminals.

Raising capacity toward the 10-million-bbl/d mark would give the world's largest crude exporter substantially more flexibility in routing cargoes to European and Atlantic-basin buyers. It also carries a clear strategic logic: the more crude that can load at Red Sea terminals, the less exposure Saudi export flows have to any disruption at Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global traded oil passes.

The timing matters for the market calendar. Saudi Arabia currently produces around 9 million bbl/d under OPEC+ quotas and holds several million bbl/d of shut-in capacity the group has kept offline since 2023. A pipeline system sized for 10 million bbl/d would align transport infrastructure with the Kingdom's stated long-term ability to surge output when OPEC+ unwinds its cuts.

Sanctioned work or ambition?

The report as published stops short of identifying sanctioned project components. Key details remain open:

• No named engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) awards
• No published capital expenditure figure
• No breakdown between new-build trunkline segments and pump-station debottlenecking on the existing Petroline
• No startup milestone beyond the three-year window

That leaves the 10-million-bbl/d figure at the planning-target stage rather than the sanctioned-project stage. Trade practice would distinguish the two carefully: capacity targets announced without FID-size cost envelopes and contractor awards are ambitions until Aramco or the Saudi energy ministry publishes scope and schedule.

Egypt Oil & Gas did not attribute the target to a named official or document in the item as circulated.

What does this mean for freight and terminals?

For tanker markets, added east-west pipeline capacity shifts loading economics toward Yanbu and the Red Sea, potentially lengthening voyages for charterers serving Europe via Suez and adjusting demand patterns for very large crude carriers on the Gulf-to-Asia route. Red Sea terminal infrastructure at Yanbu would need corresponding loading capacity to absorb additional westbound volumes.

For refiners, the watch item is reliability of supply routing. European and Atlantic-basin buyers tracking Saudi crude allocations would gain a second, Hormuz-independent corridor at scale if the buildout lands on schedule.

The watch item

Watch for Aramco or the Saudi energy ministry to confirm the target, publish a capex envelope and award EPC packages. The three-year clock — pointing to roughly 2028 — is the milestone against which the market will judge whether 10 million bbl/d of pipeline capacity moves from target to steel.